23 pages • 46 minutes read
Amy TanFish Cheeks
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1986A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Shame About One’s Cultural Heritage
The theme of shame, specifically as it relates to one’s cultural heritage, permeates the entire essay as a 14-year-old Tan is caught between her Chinese heritage and her desire to be more American. Tan uses a personal and vulnerable account in order to explore this theme, as well as precise and vivid language, which immerse the reader emotionally in her shame. Palpable throughout the essay, the overarching theme of shame reveals the complex emotions and societal pressures that shape Tan’s perception of self.
At the beginning of the essay, Tan’s vivid descriptions of the Christmas Eve dinner preparations emphasize the stark contrast between her family’s Chinese customs and American traditions that are common in the environment that surrounds her. Tan’s use of words like “shabby” to describe their Chinese Christmas immediately introduces a sense of inadequacy and embarrassment. This embarrassment is further highlighted by the narrator’s fear of judgment from her “blond-haired” crush (Paragraph 1), Robert, and his family, establishing one of the essay’s central tensions: shame about one’s cultural heritage. This shame, as it undercuts all of the narrator’s descriptions, creates an incredible sense of anxiety, causing Tan to not enjoy what would otherwise be a joyous, fun holiday.
Tan’s lurid and lyrical descriptions of her mother’s food create a link between food and the shame that Tan experiences. Tan refers to the food as “appalling” (Paragraph 3), implying an internalized expectation of what constitutes “acceptable” food. Her further figurative descriptions of the food come to represent the potential repulsion Tan anticipates from Robert and his family, and thus the larger American society. Therefore, as the food has been tied to Tan’s shame, the climax of her shame occurs when her father offers her the fish cheeks in front of Robert and his family. Her embarrassment at this offer encapsulates the shame she feels about her cultural heritage, her inability to accept her family and herself.
However, “Fish Cheeks” does not leave the reader with this feeling of shame. Instead, it transforms Tan’s internal conflict into a lesson. In the last paragraph Tan flashes forward to a time much later in her life. She reveals that as she grew, she began to understand the significance of her cultural heritage, and how without it her identity is limited and subdued. In this way, the essay invites the reader to recognize the events of the evening as necessary in order to incite a transformation. Eventually, self-acceptance emerges from Tan’s shame.
Generational Differences and the Desire to Assimilate
Fourteen-year-old Tan’s desire to assimilate into “mainstream” (i.e., white) American society is related to yet distinct from the embarrassment she feels regarding her Chinese heritage. Certainly, her perceptions of Robert’s family reflect both shame and desire: In her mind, the family symbolizes the culture she wants to belong to, their rejection or acceptance of her signifying rejection or acceptance by American society broadly. Her experience of the dinner therefore has nothing to do with her genuine feelings about Chinese customs and everything to do with external pressure. The food and her relatives embarrass her for the same reason her nose does: simply because they deviate from the white American norm.
Toward the end of the story, however, Tan hints at a different kind of assimilation. In presenting Tan with a miniskirt, Tan’s mother seems to recognize and accept that second-generation immigrants often experience their ancestral and adoptive cultures differently than their parents do. Tan may feel pressure to dress as her classmates do, but she may also simply prefer an “American” style of dress, having grown up in America. With this gift, Tan’s mother gives Tan implicit permission to assimilate in certain ways, but she pairs the skirt with a reminder of Tan’s heritage, saying that Tan “must always remain Chinese on the inside” (Paragraph 7). The juxtaposition pushes Tan toward self-reflection, encouraging her to question how much of her wish to fit in stems from shame versus authentic desire.
Though Tan does not internalize this message at 14, she discovers its meaning later in life. In the final words of the essay, she reveals that her mother prepared all of Tan’s favorite foods that Christmas Eve. The implication is that Tan’s mother—far from being oblivious to or disapproving of Tan’s wish to impress Robert and his family—knew of Tan’s feelings for Robert and wanted to ensure the evening would be special for her daughter. This underscores the story’s nuanced exploration of assimilation in immigrant families. Tan’s mother understands that her daughter’s relationship to her Chinese heritage will not be the same as her own, but she also suggests that any positive assimilation into American society must begin from a place of pride in one’s heritage. In this way, the essay becomes a narrative of self-discovery and celebration, suggesting that embracing one’s roots can pave the way for a synthesis of cultures.
The Celebration of Difference
“Fish Cheeks” explores the theme of celebrating one’s differences as a transformative form of self-acceptance. Initially overwhelmed by a sense of shame, Tan’s perspective is transformed by the end of the essay, realizing that the essence of her identity is inextricably connected to her Chinese heritage, and that this is something to be proud of.
Throughout the dinner, Tan emphasizes the difference between her family’s customs and American customs represented by Robert and his family. Fourteen-year-old Tan perceives this difference as negative, constantly referring to her own family, food, and customs with typically unfavorable words, such as “shabby” (Paragraph 2) or “appalling” (Paragraph 3). However, the essay as a whole does not necessarily validate this teenage perspective. While Tan asks the reader to maintain sympathy for 14-year-old self, she does not intend for the reader to agree with the sentiments she felt at the time. Instead, the true message of the essay lies in the mother’s concluding lesson. Instead of succumbing to the shame Tan has associated with her cultural heritage, her mother encourages and instructs her to take pride in her Chinese “inside” (Paragraph 7). It is at this point that the essay shifts from a perspective of shame and embarrassment to one of celebration.
Just as Tan is transformed by her mother’s lesson, so is the traditional Chinese meal she has unpleasantly portrayed in the essay. Her mother’s “strange menu” (Paragraph 3), the whole fish and its fish cheeks, and her family’s manners, customs, and language become symbols of the distinctiveness of her family’s cultural practices. Though still written from the perspective of 14-year-old Tan and, therefore, nestled in some harsh and immature language, the essay sneakily becomes an unapologetic tribute to Tan’s Chinese heritage. Rather than shying away from these differences, Tan asks the reader to appreciate, just as she learned to do, the unique and rich aspects of her Chinese heritage.
“Fish Cheeks” challenges the notion of cultural assimilation as a process that erases difference and that instead advocates for the celebration of cultural diversity. By exploring the themes of shame and assimilation, Tan celebrates difference almost as an antidote. Tan actually documents her Chinese traditions and customs with care and detail, effectively making the essay a testament to its own prevailing theme, the celebration of difference. The final paragraph of the essay asks the reader to reread the essay from this fresh perspective, one that is rooted not in shame but in celebration.
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